Patrol

Indiana Deputy Shot in Foot Pursuit on Life Support for Organ Donation

Boone County (IN) Sheriff's Deputy Jacob Pickett with K-9 partner Brick. Pickett was shot during a foot pursuit Friday and is on life support for organ donation. (Photo: Boone County SO)

A Boone County, IN, Sheriff's deputy will not survive the injuries he sustained after getting shot in the line of duty while assisting Lebanon police Friday morning. Deputy Jacob Pickett’s body is being preserved so his organs can be donated. Three suspects are in custody.

Officers with the Lebanon Police Department were serving an arrest warrant in the area of Hoosier Estates around 8:30 a.m. for 28-year-old John Baldwin Jr. The warrant was for two 2017 cases: auto theft and possession of syringe. Police say Baldwin Jr. and two others got into a vehicle and fled the scene, reports Fox59.

A police pursuit ensued through Lebanon, and at some point during the pursuit, Pickett, 30, got involved to assist. It turned into a foot pursuit, and he was shot. Anthony Baumgardt, 21, is the suspected shooter.

Pickett was a husband and a father of two children, ages 3 and 4. He worked for the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office before he was hired in Boone County. He worked hard to become a K-9 officer and was with his K-9 Brick at the time of the shooting.

Scanner audio captured an officer’s account of what happened at the scene, CWBChicago reports: “Ten people surrounded me, indicating that they had firearms. And one person pulled him away from me, holding his waist, indicating that he would use a firearm against me.”

There were so many police officers, sheriff’s deputies and Highway Patrol troopers that the court appearance had to be moved out of Justice Court to Judge John Larson’s Courtroom Number Three on the third floor of the Missoula County Courthouse.

The vehicle pursuit ended in the town of Kittitas where Deputy Thompson was backed up by Officer Benito Chavez. The suspect exited the vehicle and exchanged shots with the two law enforcement officers.

Sarah Wilson and her boyfriend were arrested during a stop in Chesapeake after officers allegedly found drugs in the 1996 Lexus the couple were driving. Police said they handcuffed Wilson and, while attempting to apprehend her boyfriend, 27-year-old Holden Medlin, he became combative and ran away from the scene.